Indonesia Travel Guide

Now we’ll finally begin Paradise Getaway in Kangean Islands, islands that located in Far East Java and can be reached from Madura. Consists of more than 40 small islands, Kangean gives us breathtaking under sea scenery that is rarely found around Java. If you have visited Karimunjawa and assume that it’s the most beautiful place in Java then you should visit Kangean and witness for yourself that what you’ll see in Kangean is definitely more amazing. It gives you perfect beaches with white sands and thousands of unique species.

Kangean is located in strategic position which is between Bali and Sulawesi, it makes Kangean is rich of unique sea species and various coral reefs spread in almost every spot. From my several journeys to Kangean in the last one year, I’ll share you some perfect spots to enjoy under sea scenes. Wisely, you should start from Pajenassem Harbor, located in Kayu Aru which is an east region in Kangean Island. Most of the spots are near islands so you can just go to the beach after you do snorkeling and diving. Just for information, since it’s untouched with tourism activity, you have to bring your own snorkeling and diving gear such as mask, snorkel, fin, BCD and other diving equipment. But for the lifejackets, you can borrow it from private high school in Kangean and you just pay for $1 for each.

Salarangan is the first island you can visit. Just about 25 meters from the beach, you can do snorkeling and meet lots of fishes in various colors and sizes.

About 20 minutes from Salarangan, there is this great snorkeling spots that serves you with big groups of coral reefs and thousand fishes. Sometime the current is quite tight so you need to make some efforts. I was so surprised of what I found in here because I could find a group of scorpion and lion fishes that were so beautiful with all their flawing fins. It was great since they usually live in deep shallow water but I could find them just in 4-6 meters depth in Kangean.

The journey gets even better once you arrived in Saor and Saebus Island. Those two islands are near to each other and they have beautiful underwater scenes just 10 to 20 meters from the beach. The corals are spread in big groups and they have many colors from blue, green, yellow to purple. The fishes are seemed so happy living around such healthy corals because it means that they have what they need to eat. In perfect times, you can find schooling fishes from small to medium size fishes. And you’ll enjoy so much when they swim around you.

The best part in my last journey was that I met a green turtle when I did snorkeling around Saebus Island. It seemed that I was the luckiest person because my friends didn’t get a chance to see it. I also saw small barracuda just in 1.5 meters depth. It first I didn’t recognize it because it was surrounded by many fishes but once I looked into its teeth, I soon realized that it was barracuda. Departed from Saebus, you can continue to visit Gosong Island. It’s actually not an island but white sand in the middle of the sea and an only be viewed when the water is ebbed. The corals are also beautiful around it and there are so many fishes. It may be called as clown fish neighborhood because I found hundreds of them and their home.

Some people now start to be interested in visiting Kangean and fortunately I could do several journeys with them. All of them were agree that Kangean is a paradise for underwater scenery.

Written by Amin Ch.